


Sidebar

by Slumber



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-15
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:33:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26391973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slumber/pseuds/Slumber
Summary: Harry, Draco, and an epic love story. Ron and Pansy are just along for the ride.
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Pansy Parkinson/Ron Weasley
Kudos: 7
Collections: 30-minute Writer's Block Challenge





	Sidebar

**in which our story begins**

Ron Weasley was enjoying a cuppa when Harry Potter's troubles with Draco Malfoy began.

He'd just gotten off his shift (at George's shop, not Auroring, because that ended up being rubbish after the first three months of being called Potter's Mate) and he was settling into the flat he shared with his brother (Hermione had just kicked him out again for the third time that month--it was fast becoming a record). George wasn't supposed to be around for a while, he had the latest copy of Playwizard ready, and he was just about to ease into an evening of.. you know, innocent reading, when Harry slammed the door open and stormed inside in a flurry of the black-and-red robes that trainees were required to wear.

"Robards can't _do_ that!" he hissed as a way of saying hello.

"Afternoon," Ron replied, because his mother did raise him to be polite. "What can't Robards do?"

Harry didn't even deign to reply. He'd started pacing the room, face red as the robes he wore. His fists were clenched in tight little balls and Ron thought, if he squinted hard enough, he could see a little vein popping on his temple. He gave Ron a baleful look. "Why don't you come back to training? You know, you were really good at it!"

"Not really my thing, as it turned out," Ron said with a delicate shrug. He wondered if Harry would notice if he folded his magazine just so--maybe that'll shut Holly Halloween up. She was just beginning to get loud. Maybe he could get Harry to keep talking. "What's going on now?"

Harry may have growled in response, but Ron waited. Usually Harry wound up explaining himself, and sure enough, he did.

"He's paired me with _Malfoy_!"

**in which tension is just another word for chemistry**

It wasn't like it was the end of the world, Ron thought. Harry certainly made it seem like it was a lot worse. One time he came by to pick him up--sometimes when Ron had a long lunch break he'd drop by Magical Law Enforcement and Harry'd go to lunch with him somewhere in Diagon Alley--to find Harry and Malfoy at opposite ends of the sparring room the Aurors used, wands drawn, snapping at each other.

Like the good old days, really.

The other trainees circled the two somewhat nervously, and Ron could tell it had been something that had blown out of proportion, or that had been going on a while. He wondered if he should say something. It was almost half past--George was generally fine with letting him go over, but sometimes he was in a bad mood and would nag him until he promised to take longer hours or some such rubbish.

"Excuse me--what is going on?"

"Oh, they're just--Parkinson?"

"Oh, it's you."

Pansy Parkinson was just as Ron remembered, all snooty and disdainful. (She did grow a nice pair of tits since seventh year.) She wrinkled her nose and nodded toward the couple. "What are they up to now?"

"Just another duel," he said. "You here to pick up Malfoy?"

"We were supposed to have lunch."

"Yeah, I'm waiting on Harry too."

She smirked then. "Didn't realize you two were..."

"What? No! Bloody hell, just because you're planning on giving Malfoy a good tug before--"

There was a loud _thwack_ , the sound of skin hitting skin. Or more to the point, the sound of Pansy's palm on Ron's cheek.

"Jesus bloody _Christ_ , Parkinson--"

"Pansy?" That was Draco, taking his cue.

"Let's go, Draco," she said.

**in which secrets are kept**

Ron knew something was up with Harry, but his mate wouldn't tell him for anything. That was saying something, because Ron was usually rubbish at this level of sensitivity and Harry was usually the first to talk about his problems. Side effect of growing up without brothers like Fred and George, Ron thought.

But Harry was skittish, avoided his questions, and snapped at the smallest of comments. He walked around like he was being hunted, and it wasn't until Harry blew him off for dinner one night that he managed to sort it out.

Mainly, because that night Pansy showed up at his front door. (Okay, at George's front door. Hermione still wasn't speaking to him.)

"There's something going on," was all she said, pushing past him and flopping onto his sofa. "Draco's not talking to me and I _swear_ Potter's behind it somehow."

"I didn't say you could come in?"

"It's like they're keeping something--" she paused, frowning at something in her seat. She pulled it up and unrolled the magazine tucked beneath a cushion. "Really, Weasley?"

"It's my brother's," he shrugged, though he was sure by the smirk on her face that she didn't believe him one bit. "Anyway, maybe they've just been put on a case or something. S'what he told me today anyway."

"There is no case, Weasley," she scoffed. "Isn't it obvious yet?"

"Isn't what obvious?"

"They're in love."

**in which there is imminent danger**

He didn't quite believe Pansy Parkinson, truth be told, but she told him what to look for and to be honest, she kind of had a point. At her suggestion (also her urging, she was apparently dying to know but Malfoy was tight-lipped and she was convinced Harry would talk to Ron) he tried to subtly ask Harry to see what he would say about Malfoy, but that somewhat backfired.

"I didn't tell you to ask _outright_!" she hissed at him.

"I didn't!"

"What did you say exactly?"

"I just-- well--"

"What did you say?"

"If he liked being buggered now, and what Ginny said about that?"

"You're an _idiot_ ," Pansy decided, shaking her head and peering around the tree. "Do you see them?"

"No, but you're kind of blocking my view," he said. He was standing behind her, could smell the shampoo on her hair. His crotch was also only an inch away from her bum (and what a finely shaped bum it was) and truth be told, his attention wasn't really on whether or not Harry and Malfoy were anywhere in sight. "You sure you saw them go in?"

"Just Draco so far," she said. Across the street was old Grimmauld Place, which technically, as a half-Black Draco could probably have access to. Ron still wasn't convinced there was any shenanigans-ing going on between his mate and Draco bloody Malfoy, but Pansy was convinced and it meant he didn't have to wait on his best mate to stand him up, or sit around his brother's flat doing nothing. 

"You know, I don't think--" he started to say, but just then there was an explosion from inside Grimmauld Place, something that sounded like a shriek within, and Ron had only a split second to grab Pansy and hold her still. "You can't go in there, are you _barking_?"

"Let _go_ , Weasley, Draco's--"

" _Draco!_ " That was Harry, coming up from down the road. He broke into a sprint, hurrying inside.

Well bloody hell.

**in which love conquers all**

He didn't know how long they waited, but Ron didn't feel right letting Pansy enter Grimmauld Place, and even though he himself wanted to go, somebody had to watch out for her. (Right?) He did Owl Robards, who told him the squad was on its way, only when they did arrive, they spent a good ten minutes hanging around Grimmauld Place trying to figure out what to do. 

For one thing, they had no idea what the explosion was about.

For another, they had even less of an idea why Harry and Malfoy were meeting there.

Ron caught Pansy's look and they decided, telepathically because neither of them said anything but it seemed they came to the same conclusion, to be quiet. By the time a few Aurors finally started to make their way inside, though, Harry burst out, carrying Malfoy's body in his arms.

Pansy and Ron were on their feet in an instant, stopped only by the Aurors around them. Harry's skin was smudged with char and ash, his eyes were wild and his hair was sooty. He stumbled onto his knees, still clutching Malfoy's unconscious body and sobbing, almost hysterically.

"Draco, Draco, you've got to wake up!" he begged. "I can't-- I can't live without you!" 

Ron elbowed Pansy on the rib. "Hey," he whispered. "You were right."

Pansy glared at him--why, he had no idea--but then Malfoy started coughing, and she gasped, and so did everyone else, but that was probably less because Malfoy was alive and more because Harry chose that moment to kiss him full on the lips.

"For fuck's sake, Potter--" Malfoy croaked. "What are you doing?"

"Kissing you, you dolt."

Robards and his men looked a little bit unsure about their role in the whole affair, but they mingled around all the same while they gossiped amongst each other. Soon enough, the Healers and paramediwitches showed up too, swarming around the pair and fussing equally over Harry and Malfoy. Harry caught Ron's eyes, blinked in surprise, and, in the kind of silent communication that can only happen between best mates of ten years, told him he was okay, and that he would take care of Draco.

Pansy took a step forward, tried to push past the crowd of people around him, but Ron grabbed her by the wrist. She turned to look. "What?"

"It's okay," Ron said. "Harry's gonna take care of him."

"But--"

"He'll be fine. It's fine."

Pansy still looked a bit unsure, so Ron tried another tactic.

"I'm kind of hungry. Wanna go grab something to eat?"

"With you?"

"Who else?"

Pansy looked at him for a moment, then shrugged. "Sure, why not."

Why the hell not indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Please consider donating to local organizations who support trans individuals in your area.


End file.
